The Journey So Far

 After a glorious ten hours of sleep, we are refreshed and enjoying a hot cuppa with our incredible view of the waking bustle of Edinburgh on a Thursday. Here’s the views from our sweet flat.

Before we set out on our day, I have a few musings on some pragmatic aspects of traveling in Europe.

First, toilets must be mentioned. The toilets and plumbing here are different than what we are used to in the states. They are low flow, and often clogged. Keep this in mind when taking a four hour train ride where it can be a real issue when all the toilets on the train are clogged up, or have no water left in the spigot for hand washing. My suggestion is: eat and drink lightly (and pray that at least one privy remains functional!) Also, I’ve taken to putting all toilet paper in the bin next to the throne, using no more than a few squares of TP at a time (yes, seriously) and maybe do a couple of flushes as you do your Number Twosies! 

Second, you may need to ask for help (or find a YouTube tutorial) on how to use their different appliances. Kettles are fairly common and straightforward here, but things like convection ovens or the joint washers/dryers, particularly if the manual is either not available or in another language are a bit mysterious.

Third, cream. Here, if you’re looking for half and half, you might not find it, they seem to just use cream. They are packaged very differently here, more like a sour cream container with a foil top (that are not resealable which is something to consider if you’re going from place to place) and they are not with the milk but seem to always be the next shelf over. The label might say something like “Single Cream: For pouring and baking” or “Double Cream: For pouring and cooking, thickening sauces” But basically, single cream is thicker than half and half, and does not have enough fat content to whip, and double cream is akin to our heavy cream. And then there is Clotted Cream which is baked and you spread it on scones or crumpets! They are all delicious!

Here are shots from the train ride (with seven clogged toilets) and our initial walk of the city!